President Trump announced last week that three news organizations—CNN, MS NOW, and Politico—would be banned from White House press briefings because they are “Fake News Media Outlets” publishing “one-sided,” “never good,” “purposely negative stories” about him. Over the weekend, reporters from those outlets were denied entry to the West Wing. On Monday the three organizations sued Trump, claiming the ban is unconstitutional. Now the rest of the press is chattering about the prospects of that suit.
Take it to the bank: The media companies will win. My guess is that the district court will enjoin the ban within a week.
Here’s why I’m so confident. The case was filed in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia. That court is required to follow decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. And that appeals court has confronted this issue several times in the past and has expressly, repeatedly held that this kind of ban violates the First Amendment.
What was the basis for the D.C. Circuit’s rulings? After all, the ban doesn’t prevent the affected news organizations from publishing whatever stories they like. Trump’s defenders argue that news organizations have no constitutional right to enter the White House, nor to receive any briefings from White House staff. And they’re correct about that. The president could put a complete stop to all press briefings if he wanted. He could limit White House access solely to government personnel, barring all newspeople completely, and there would be no constitutional violation.
Different rules apply, however, once the president has chosen to have his press team conduct briefings open widely to Washington’s press.
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